How to Make Your Own Veggie Chips

Unless you’re superhuman, you probably get a hankering for potato chips every so often. They’re crispy, crunchy, and just salty enough to make you dip back into the bag again (and again and again) for more.

Tempted to run out for a bag of the salty snack, stat? Not so fast. In addition to sodium, potato chips are also notoriously high in fat and calories. In fact, just one eight-ounce bag of the crunchy nosh could set you back more than 1,200 calories. Yikes. The good news: It's surprisingly easy to whip up homemade veggie chips that are healthy, too. All you need is the vegetable of your choice and a little bit of salt.

Start with any firm, flavorful tuber or root vegetable. Some of our favorites (clockwise from top left, above) are golden beets, purple potatoes, celery root, and parsnips. And once you make your veggie chips, dig right in: These chips are best eaten the day they're made. You can store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature, but you might want to briefly re-crisp them in a 300ºF oven before eating.

How to make them: Peel and slice your vegetable of choice as thinly as possible (a mandoline is useful for this), about 1⁄16 inch. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Place a wire cooling rack over a rimmed baking sheet; lightly mist rack with olive oil cooking spray. Lay vegetable slices on rack as close together as possible without touching. Mist very lightly with olive oil cooking spray; sprinkle with salt. Bake for 4 minutes. Flip slices and bake for 4 minutes more. Remove any slices that are turning golden; place on another cooling rack. Continue baking remaining slices in 1- to 2-minute intervals, flipping slices between each, until turning golden and beginning to crisp (vegetables will crisp further as they cool), removing slices as they’re done.